Alumni

"A Broken Immigration System and its Talented Undocumented Youth"

Today's immigration debates have brought to the fore conflicting visions within the United States over how to address a population of 11-12 million undocumented immigrants. However, contemporary debates have yet to catch up to the current realities and complexities of immigrant families, and thus do not account, for the most part, for a growing population of undocumented children in the United States. DREAM Act Candidate and founder of "DREAMERS for POSITIVE CHANGE", Jorge-Alonso Chehade, shares his story.

Wednesday, 1/13

12pm - 1:20pm

Fairhaven Auditorium

Video unavailable

"Irresistible Resistance: Artists Confronting Issues of Our Time"

Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Program at the University of Washington, Tacoma

Art as entertainment and decoration comforts and reinforces the status quo. Oppression of various kinds, as well as economic, socio-political and ecological unraveling, has moved many artists to gather and share stories of resistance, make the invisible visible, provoke dialog in polarized communities, awaken those who are asleep and help envision a more just and sustainable world. This slide talk and discussion will highlight art being created about environmental issues, war, racism and cultural identity, body image, labor issues and global justice. The community-based and eco-art movements and socially engaged art pedagogy will also be discussed.

Wed 1/20

"The 2008 Economic Crisis and its Global Ramifications"

Economics Instructor at Bellevue College and Shoreline Community College

The financial crisis of 2008 led to the most severe economic recession in the U.S. since the Great Depression. How has the crisis affected the rest of the world? What caused it in the first place? Why have the remedies so far enacted been insufficient? What steps might be taken to prevent similar crises in the future?

Wed 1/27

12 - 1:20pm

Fairhaven Auditorium

Video unavailable

"Health Care Reform, American Style (what's not to like?)"

Principal Lecturer of Health Services and Global Health (adjunct), University of Washington School of Public Health.

Congress has passed major health care legislation, President Obama's domestic policy priority. What will it really mean for the goal of providing quality, effective and efficient care for all Americans? And does this mean the U.S. finally joins the "community of nations" that manifest a human right to health?

Wed 2/10

"Challenging Canadian Multiculturalism: The Community Effects of Hate Crime."

Barbara Perry, University of Ontario. Faculty of Criminology, Justice and Policy Studies

A surprisingly underexplored dimension of hate crime is the impact that is has not only on the immediate victim, but on the broader community. Based on a number of related projects, the lecture explores some of these key effects, with particular emphasis on the implications of such violence for Canadian multiculturalism. Hate crimes are direct threats to the principles of multiculturalism, and have the potential to present obstacles to the ability or willingness of affected communities to engage in civic life. The lecture thus aims to uncover the ways in which hate crime challenges the much heralded "policy" of multiculturalism in Canada.

“Socio-Economic Status and Rights of Women in Nepal”

Women in Nepal have long been the economic backbone of the nation, yet they remain largely marginalized and Isolated from access to land, house and other economic resources. Sarmila Shrestha will address the major contributing factors by which women are socio- economically subordinated to men, analyze critically the legal and judicial initiatives to promote socio- economic rights of women in Nepal, and discuss possible effective steps for reducing the socio- economic exploitation against women in Nepal.

Women in Nepal face extreme problems relating to their reproductive health, even though this right is incorporated into Nepal’s Interim Constitution. This presentation describes women’s situation of social inequality in Nepal, focusing on reproductive health. Public interest litigation has proven to be one of the most effective tools for creating change in the promotion of reproductive health service to women in Nepal. The rights-based approach, judicial decisions, and effective steps for implementation of court decisions will be discussed.

Wed 2/24 (2nd lecture)

"Mining and Indigenous Rights: The Struggle for Self-Determination in Guatemala"

Pascual Bernabe Velasquez will talk about mining and natural resources in Huehuetenango and the response of indigenous communities to mining development in Guatemala. Pascual is second town councilor of San Juan Ixcoy, one of the 27 municipalities in Huehuetenagno declared "free of mining" by the community through a process of "consultas" which is a decision making process promoting self-determination and defends the communities' way of life. Since 2005, 41 "consultas" were organized and over 600,000 Guatemalans in the Highlands voted NO to proposed mining in the region, an amazing example of citizen participation and organizing.

Bridget Brehen, NISGUA Program Coordinator will be accompanying Pascual as interpreter

Wed 3/3

Speaker Biographies

Jorge-Alonso Chehade, is 22 years old and a recent grad (2009) from the Michael G. Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. He is originally from Peru. On 1998 his father's human resources business failed and after three years of fighting against age discrimination in employment, a corrupt business environment and an stagnated economy that resulted from the century's strongest "El Niño" weather phenomenon, global financial turmoil, political instability, a stalled privatization program, increased government intervention in markets, and worsening terms of trade; his family had to move to the United States on 2001. On March 14th of 2009 his undocumented immigrant status was discovered by the Immigration Custom Enforcement (ICE) authorities. On June 18th he began a campaign to stop his deportation. After a deferred action request submitted by two pro-bono attorneys on September 15th, backed up by the strong support of Congressman Jim McDermott through the introduction of a private bill, 17 inches of faxed letters from local and national support including Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, and other important political figures; the local immigration authorities denied the request on September 23rd. Alonso is currently scheduled to report with ICE on January 5th for what could be a potential deportation from the United States. He doesn't have a way to apply for permanent residency or legal status in the United States under our current laws despite that he entered the country under aged, has a clean criminal record and got a bachelor's degree from a prestigious University. He qualifies for the DREAM Act, a legislation based on earned legalization currently co-sponsored by Senator Maria Cantwell, which is why her staff is currently and still discussing the possibility on introducing a private bill on Alonso's behalf to stop his deportation.

Beverly Naidus has made socially engaged art and taught the same for over three decades. She was very active and recognized in both the New York City and Los Angeles activist art worlds before choosing a more rural and world-wide-web-connected life. Her audience-participatory, intermedia work has been exhibited all over the world, in major museums, university galleries, alternative spaces, subway cars and city streets. Her work has been discussed in books by Suzi Gablik, She is on the faculty of the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Program at the University of Washington, Tacoma and recently published Arts for Change: Teaching Art Outside the Frame (New Village Press, 2009). She lives on Vashon Island with her partner, Bob Spivey (founder of SEEDS, www.socialecologyvashon.org) and their teenage son, Sam. More information can be found about current projects, collaborations and upcoming lectures and workshops at www.artsforchange.org and beverlynaidus.net

Marjolein van der Veen is currently teaching Economics at Bellevue College and Shoreline Community College in the Seattle area. In the past, she has taught Economics at UMass-Amherst, UMass-Boston and Wellesley College, as well as in the Netherlands (from 2005-07). She received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (2002), with a dissertation on the topic of sex trafficking and prostitution. Her writing has been published in Class and Its Others and Rethinking Marxism, and she authored a Student Study Guide for the textbook Macroeconomics In Context. Her recent research interests include the 2008 economic crisis and alternatives to U.S.-style capitalism.

Thomas S. Weisner, PhD is Professor of Anthropology, Departments of Psychiatry (NPI Semel Institute, Center for Culture and Health) and Anthropology at UCLA. His research and teaching interests are in culture and human development, medical, psychological and cultural studies of families and children at risk; mixed methods, and evidence-informed policy. He is Director of the Center for Culture & Health and UCLA, and the Fieldwork and Qualitative Data: Laboratory in the Mental Retardation Research Center. He is currently studying impacts on children and families of changes in welfare and family supports, based on a longitudinal study over 8 years of a successful random-assignment experimental support program for working - poor parents (with Greg Duncan, Aletha Huston, Hiro Yoshikawa, Bob Granger and others). He also directs a longitudinal study of families with children with development disabilities (with Barbara Keogh and Ronald Gallimore), and is collaborating in a random-assignment, experimental mixed-method study of the impacts on families and children of early literacy interventions for Head Start programs (with Chris Lonigan and JoAnn Farver). He is also collaborating on a qualitative study of physician use of local clinical knowledge (with Richard Kravitz and Naihua Duan). He has done longitudinal field research (through 1992) in Western Kenya and Nairobi, on sibling caretaking of children, and on the long-term consequences of urban migration for children and families, as well as studies of sibling caretaking and school competence among Native Hawaiians (with Ronald Gallimore). Weisner has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, a member of the MacArthur Foundation research network on successful pathways in middle childhood, is past President of the Society for Psychological Anthropology, on the Board of Child Fund International, and is a Senior Program Advisor to the William T Grant Foundation. He is the co-author of Higher Ground: New Hope for the Working Poor and Their Children (2007) (with Greg Duncan and Aletha Huston); co-editor of Making it work: Low-wage employment, family life and child development: New methods in the study of childhood and family life (2005); and co-editor of African families and the crisis of social change (with Candice Bradley and Phil Kilbride) (1997). His B.A. in Anthropology is from Reed College and Ph.D from Harvard University (1973) in Anthropology and Social Relations.

Aaron Katz is a principal lecturer of Health Services and Global Health (adjunct), University of Washington School of Public Health. He has held numerous academic leadership positions, including his current role as director of the Global Health Leadership Program. He was director of the UW Health Policy Analysis Program from 1988 until 2003 and editor-in-chief of the School's biannual journal, Northwest Public Health, from 1999 to 2008. Aaron teaches several graduate level courses in health policy. Aaron received the American Public Health Association's Award for Excellence in November 2006 and the Outstanding Teaching Award from the UW School of Public Health in 2004. Aaron has developed a deep understanding of the U.S. health care system and its strengths and weaknesses during a career that has spanned more than 30 years and three "bouts" with health care reform. He has worked in health policy and planning in Washington state since 1978, serving as a health planner, policy and planning consultant, lobbyist, and political adviser. Aaron has directed numerous policy analysis and policy development projects for legislative bodies, state and local public agencies, and private sector clients, including work on health system reform, public health reform, managed care, rural access, HIV/AIDS, workers compensation, long term care, medical economics, and services for people with low incomes. Since 1999, Aaron has collaborated on policy development and advocacy projects with colleagues in various countries in southern Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America as well as Japan. Aaron has served as a peer reviewer of articles for the Journal of Rural Health, Health Affairs, Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, and Family and Community Health. He has served on numerous academic committees and community boards, including his current roles as Board Chairman of the Washington State Budget and Policy Center and Board President of Health Alliance International. Aaron received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 1974 and a certificate [master] of public health degree from the University of Toronto in 1975.

Dr. Barbara Perry is Professor of Criminology, Justice and Policy Studies at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. She has written extensively in the area of hate crime, including two books on the topic: In the Name of Hate: Understanding Hate Crime; and Hate and Bias Crime: A Reader. She has just completed a book manuscript for University of Arizona Press entitled The Forgotten Victims: Native American Victims of Hate Crime, based on interviews with Native Americans. She is also completing a British Home Office project on anti-racism programming in England and Wales. Her work has been published in journals representing diverse disciplines: Theoretical Criminology, Journal of Social and Behavioral Sciences; Journal of History and Politics; and American Indian Quarterly. Dr. Perry continues to work in the area of hate crime, and has begun to make contributions to the limited scholarship on hate crime in Canada. Here, she is particularly interested in anti-Muslim violence, and hate crime against Aboriginal people. She hopes that this website will also help to advance this nascent field of Canadian studies.

Sarmila Shrestha works for the Forum for Protection of Public Interest (Pro Public) as a Public Interest Lawyer in the field of protection and promotion of human rights and social justice. Among other things, she helped draft the Gendered Model Constitution to submit to the government for ensuring gender equality and women's rights in Nepal's new constitution. Currently, she is studying at Columbia University Law School on the Public Interest Law Fellowship Program and next will study in Budapest.

Pascual Bernabe Velasquez is second town councilor of San Juan Ixcoy, one of the 27 municipalities in Huehuetenango, Guatemala declared "free of mining" by the community through a process of "consultas". A "consulta" is a democratic referendum in which each member of the community has a vote. This form of decision-making promotes indigenous self-determination and defends the communities' way of life. Since 2005, 41 "consultas" were organized and over 600,000 people in the Guatemalan Highlands voted NO to proposed mining operations in the region, an amazing example of citizen participation and organizing. Bernabe is also a member of the Huehuetenango Regional Assembly in Defense of Natural Resources in Huehuetenango, which coordinated all of the Community Consultas in the department of Huehuetenango. On a broader level, this Assembly is part of the People's Council of the Western Guatemalan Highlands (Consejo de los Pueblos de Occidente).

Bridget Brehen, NISGUA Program Coordinator will be accompanying Pascual throughout the tour. Bridget has been on staff at NISGUA since 2005, when she started as an international human rights observer with the Guatemala Accompaniment Project, later joining the organization as coordinator of the program. She currently works out of the Guatemala City office and is looking forward to meeting local activists, representing NISGUA's programs and providing translation and tour support to Pascual.